A year after the devastating 9/11 attacks, another attack is planned on the American homeland. A cabal of ‘one-world’ elitists, in league with the Chinese government, are planning a coordinated cyber attack on the American economy and a series of terrorist attacks on American targets, designed to bring the U.S. to its knees and usher in a world government.

Ex-CIA operative John Powers and his team, while surveilling a meeting between Chinese and Cuban spies in Mexico City, get wind of the terror attacks, while Alex Cardenas, John’s boss at Select-Intel Group, a private security organization, is watching a hedge fund trader who is suspected of conducting a shady insider trading operation. Little do they know that these events are related. It only comes to light when Alex’s fiancée and a member of Powers’ team are kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel and spirited away to Cuba.

Operation Black Swan by Owen Parr follows the riveting action as Powers and Cardenas marshal their forces to forestall an operation that will bring the U.S. down.

This is a high-stakes game where losing is not an option. The theme is first-rate, but the story is marred by the bane of most first-time authors; overwriting and failure to distinguish among the large cast of characters. The author does too much ‘telling,’ with characters providing information through their dialogue that wouldn’t ordinarily be part of a conversation. The dialogue is also stilted, with every character speaking in perfect English, with no distinctive speaking traits. Without the character tags it would be impossible to know who is speaking. There are also too many data dumps, with the same information being given again and again.

I found the plot interesting and compelling, but the over-writing and somewhat clunky narrative made this a difficult book to read. I had to force myself to read it through to the end, and only because I was curious to know how it would be resolved in the end.

I received this book as a gift. While I give the plot and theme four stars, I’m afraid I have to give it three stars overall for poor execution.